JOHNNY SCHAER
FPV Drone Racer/Freestyle, Videographer
I’m an FPV drone pilot from Chicago, Illinois, with an obsession for the art of flight, unique flying styles, and dynamic camera movements.
Nearly 6 years ago I stumbled across the world of FPV on a YouTube video (shoutout Charpu!). That viewing session would end up changing my life forever.
I bought my first drone the very next day and set out on a journey into the unknown. The crazy thing? There was no path to follow, no light at the end of the tunnel. This was uncharted territory. FPV had my attention and imagination unlike anything else. I knew this was something special.
As my unique flying style began to emerge and gain popularity within FPV communities, FPV racing also became more and more popular. I started traveling the world to compete in races, and throughout these new experiences, I started to obsess over the camera and the filmmaking side of FPV.
In 2017 it became clear to me, FPV drones have the ability to capture unique and extremely energizing imagery for professional filmmaking. I began doing everything I could to make this vision a reality.
Fast forward to the now, FPV filmmaking for professional productions has become my life. My dream of flight continues, and the sky still has no limits.
JAKE IRISH
Videographer, Editor
I’m a lifestyle videographer from Central Maine, with a love for story telling, pushing technological challenges, producing colors and EFX, and bringing new ideas and concepts into post-production.
I fell in love with filmmaking back in 2011 after the GoProH2 released their promo videos and brought real-life POV to the entertainment industry. To me at the time, GoPro videos looked so cinematic/action packed and I had to figure out how to replicate it. I became obsessed with the technology. At the same time, I had a very strong interest in Vice documentaries. What fascinated me the most was when the Vice team would fly to controversial locations around the world and produce edgy content of major global events. I thought it was crazy how they would conduct interviews with war-lords, or hang out with on-duty militants in an active war zone. It wasn’t the danger that intrigued me, it was the feeling of watching something so real. It was the ultimate pinnacle of raw, uncut journalism. I knew I wanted to pursue a career that would allow me to tell stories that had a similar type of realness.
When it comes to post-production, I’m equally as passionate about bringing videos that same raw feeling from within the computer. I worked for the largest travel agency in the world on social media and I was fortunate enough to travel to over 10 different countries and document the stories that I always dreamed of. Last year, Johnny and I teamed up and created Johnny FPV’s - Turkey video, surpassing over 1.2 million views from its unique, cinematic style combined with Johnny’s top of the line piloting skills. View some of my recent projects on my Instagram and feel free to ask me any questions!⬇
Johnny & Jake's Collaboration
Johnny and Jake Irish have similar creative perspectives and expectations. Over the last few months, Jake Irish has experimented with developing a series of finished, high-quality look up tables. The goal was to create the perfect LUT pack for FPV exclusively. We later discovered that these LUTs work equally as amazing on DSLRs, consumer drones, cinema cameras and even 360 cams. We originally thought that the GoPro was a camera that would never allow for any significant color grades. Jake Irish discovered how to fully unlock the capability of the GoPro by designing a very specific conversion/primary LUT pack. Johnny’s latest video, “Sandscape”, was a science experiment that lead to the discovery of these LUTs. It took several months to unlock the full-potential of GoPro’s color-science, backed by over 7 years of experience with the same/evolved color tables. In detailed-terms, our LUTs control many aspects of the video quality, not just the color. You will noticeably see a sharper image.. but why? The LUTs we produced prevent pixels from frantically changing, flashing or adapting to false colors mainly due to exposure and white balance shifts (which is a common side-effect with GoPro and other small action cameras). With any other traditional LUT, the result is always poor quality. Traditional LUTs, which are rarely ever made for GoPro specifically, cause enormous amount of grain, flashes, and color shifts. They can sometimes even ruin your footage completely. But with our LUTs, they never produce these common issues. Check it out here. With our LUTs, GoPro finally looks like a cinema camera. Just wait until you try it on your DSLR footage too. Johnny and Jake Irish developed 5 primary LUTs, as well as different exposure variations for each of the LUTs depending on your shots, making our pack have a total of around 155+ LUTs. They have now been tested across every consumer brand camera and they simply work.
